Lauren Ober

Lauren Ober is the host of WAMU’s The Big Listen, the “broadcast about podcasts.” Before taking the helm of this program, she was an award-winning radio producer for WAMU’s weekly newsmagazine, Metro Connection. Ober’s stories have been heard on other public radio shows, including NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Here & Now, PRI’s The World and Latino USA, as well as podcasts like Criminal, 99% Invisible, Gravy and KCRW’s Unfictional. Ober previously served as producer of Orbital Path, a podcast from PRX about the cosmos and our place in it.

Guest Appearances

April 13, 2017

Lauren Ober hosts the only nationally syndicated public radio program about podcasts, “The Big Listen.” She joins Chris Bannon and Lex Friedman on The Wolf Den to tell how the show got started at WAMU and what it was like to get picked up by NPR. Lauren explains how she balances serving the different audiences which listen to the broadcast version of the show, compared to the podcast version. She also discusses the influence and growth of podcasting on public radio stations across the market, detailing the advantages the medium offers these stations. As an experienced journalist and producer who listens to many podcasts with a critical ear, Lauren offers her thoughts on what makes for a consistently engaging show, and how “The Big Listen” team selects the podcasts to feature on the program.